According to a report by the BBC World Service, there is a strong correlation between increases in temperature and rainfall due to global warming and increases in crime, violence and war. I am not making this up. To say the least, this report is idiotic. Indeed, I waited a few days to write about it just to make sure that it was not just a hoax by someone pretending to be the BBC. Sadly, the report turned out to be real, incredibly stupid, but real.
Let's examine the thesis for just a minute to see if it holds up.
1. Everyone agrees that from the fourteenth century to the early years of the nineteenth century Earth experienced a mini ice age. Temperatures during this period were substantially lower than they are today, so we should find this to be a relatively peaceful, non-violent and crime free era. Strangely, this peaceful era was the time of the Hundred Years War (a veritable pageant of European non-violence), the Thirty Years War, all sorts of ongoing and endless European wars, the American revolution, the French revolution, the Mongol conquests, countless wars among the rulers in India and the like. In Europe, this cold period was capped off by the Napoleonic Wars which kept that continent fighting for about twenty years, twenty extremely bloody years.
2. When the cold period ended and the world climate began to warm (around 1820), Europe began one of its most peaceful periods in history. That's strange, since the BBC report says that the extra heat ought to have led to more fighting. There were colonial wars as before, but the European powers kept the peace among themselves for the most part for the next century. Oh, there were lapses, like the Franco-Prussian War but that lasted only two months. Not until World War I was there a major conflict.
3. By the time of World War I, the climate was warmer than it had been for the previous few centuries and it was warmer still for World War II. Strangely, after that, there were no major wars even though the world has gotten to the point where we are constantly told it is setting heat records.
4. Maybe the prediction is wrong with regards to wars but it is correct concerning crime and violence. Right now we should be seeing enormous increases in crime across the world due to all these supposed temperature increases that we have experienced. Strangely, during the last thirty years, the crime rates across America (where we have really good data) have declined dramatically. I suppose that the global warming crowd will blame that decline on air conditioners.
The truth is that the global warming hysterics are just making themselves look silly. There is clearly no demonstrable correlation between climate and violence, crime and war. What will we hear next from them? My guess is that we will be told that fracking causes a decline in the average SAT scores for high school students. That makes as much sense at the report from the BBC.
Let's examine the thesis for just a minute to see if it holds up.
1. Everyone agrees that from the fourteenth century to the early years of the nineteenth century Earth experienced a mini ice age. Temperatures during this period were substantially lower than they are today, so we should find this to be a relatively peaceful, non-violent and crime free era. Strangely, this peaceful era was the time of the Hundred Years War (a veritable pageant of European non-violence), the Thirty Years War, all sorts of ongoing and endless European wars, the American revolution, the French revolution, the Mongol conquests, countless wars among the rulers in India and the like. In Europe, this cold period was capped off by the Napoleonic Wars which kept that continent fighting for about twenty years, twenty extremely bloody years.
2. When the cold period ended and the world climate began to warm (around 1820), Europe began one of its most peaceful periods in history. That's strange, since the BBC report says that the extra heat ought to have led to more fighting. There were colonial wars as before, but the European powers kept the peace among themselves for the most part for the next century. Oh, there were lapses, like the Franco-Prussian War but that lasted only two months. Not until World War I was there a major conflict.
3. By the time of World War I, the climate was warmer than it had been for the previous few centuries and it was warmer still for World War II. Strangely, after that, there were no major wars even though the world has gotten to the point where we are constantly told it is setting heat records.
4. Maybe the prediction is wrong with regards to wars but it is correct concerning crime and violence. Right now we should be seeing enormous increases in crime across the world due to all these supposed temperature increases that we have experienced. Strangely, during the last thirty years, the crime rates across America (where we have really good data) have declined dramatically. I suppose that the global warming crowd will blame that decline on air conditioners.
The truth is that the global warming hysterics are just making themselves look silly. There is clearly no demonstrable correlation between climate and violence, crime and war. What will we hear next from them? My guess is that we will be told that fracking causes a decline in the average SAT scores for high school students. That makes as much sense at the report from the BBC.
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